Your Favorite Sonic Youth Live Bootlegs ?
 

Sonic Youth have been a band for well over 25 years and have toured behind almost every record. Everyone can agree thy're a kick ass live band but they have so many live boots its kind of hard to know which ones are essential or fantastic.

So lets list our favorite bootlegs and talk them up so everyone knows the ones they should get

I only have three so far:
4-7-96 Dusseldorf, Germany (this is a great boot from the washing machine tour, the songs sound even better live if that were possible)
8/14/04 Boston, Ma (thit was the show i went to in 04 on the nurse tour. Has a great 8 minute opener of "burning spear and has mote and exprswy)
8-7-02 Raleigh, NC (i heard rumors that the murray street material sounded better live...and its absolutely true! I love this boot great versions if erics trip, kissability and shadow of a soubt on it)

Does anyone have that continental club bootleg ? The one where they are premiering material form Evol ? Is it worth getting ? Does the material sound different enough from the record ?

i like cat's in the cradle one. very interesting and long show from nyc+ghost era, but there's so many great sy bootlegs around. i think van rappard+atari+lots other people have really big and priceless arichve of sy boots.
many times it's hard to recognize them by name, coz so many different scources and conversions exists...uff....

i have a question, regarding "ethics" of bootlegging.

ive had the white columns noisefest boot long before it was released in the EP reissue, and its on my trading list still. should this still be traded or not now that its available commercially?

It's the Pilgrim Theater, not White Columns, golden child.
Another early one also circulating is the July '81 Just Above Midtown.

Now this is an interesting topic & hopefully one in which I can learn some good information. I was thinking of starting it the other day.
You might have read that "rumor" from one of my posts recently.

dazedcola, Live in Texas, or Live at the Continental Club is nothing completely essential really although there is a good Ghost Bitch & a few other decent ones on it. I'm not wild about Raleigh '02's sound quality, but the performance is very good. There's many, many Murray Street tour ones going around like that.

in response to the topic question and
in chronological order, here's some noteworthy shows that I can pick out right away...

4/14/83 Long Island, NY
11/20/83 The Exhaus Trier, Germany
10/24/84 Maxwell's Hoboken, NJ
8/01/85 Stache's Columbus, OH
8/03/85 Olde Brooklyn Tavern Cleveland, OH
8/11/85 the Smart Bar Chicago Anarchy at St. Mary's Place
7/27/86 CBGB NYC
4/23/87 Maxwell's Hoboken, NJ
4/24/87 Maxwell's Hoboken, NJ
10/13/87 Headliners Madison, WI
10/11/88 BBC Studios London 1st Peel Session broadcast 4 Tunna Brix
12/10/88 Traxx Charlottesville, VA
3/26/89 The Paradiso Amsterdam, NL
4/02/89 Markthalle Hamburg, Germany
8/07/90 Toad's Place New Haven, CT x2
8/17/90 The Palladium, Hollywood, CA
9/16/90 Berlin, Germany Tempodrom sbd
10/13/90 Les Foufounes Electriques Montreal, QC
10/15/90 Great Hall Toronto, ON
11/03/90 Crawford Hall UC Irvine (part of this is on the Dirty Boots ep)
4/04/91 Whisky a Go-Go Los Angeles
8/27/91 The Aladdin Theater Bremen, Germany Live in Bremen
10/17/92 Nelson Mandela Ballroom Binghamton U Binghamton, NY
11/26/92 Teatro Tenda Stisce, Rome, Italy
12/14/92 Brixton Academy London Splitting the Atom
7/14/93 Campo Pequeno Lisboa, Portugal Blastic Scene
3/18/96 Club Noorderlicht Tilburg, NL
4/07/96 Philipshalle Düsseldorf, Germany Easter, etc.
6/16/96 Tibetan Freedom Concert Golden Gate Park San Francisco, CA
5/28/98 Veterans Wadsworth Theater Los Angeles
6/20/98 Rockpalast Festival Lorelei, Germany
6/26/98 Roskilde Festival Denmark
4/01/99 Bowery Ballroom NYC
7/22/00 Warfield Theatre San Francisco
6/14/02 Hultsfred Festivalen Hultsfred, Sweden
6/20/02 Le Aeronef Lille, France Ecoute Ca Coco
8/13/02 WERS-FM in-studio Boston (acoustic with Thurston, Lee, & Jim)
8/15/02 Kool Haus Toronto, ON x2
7/12/03 Ilosaarirock Festival Joensuu, Finland
8/14/04 Avalon Ballroom Boston x2
6/03/05 Art Rock Festival Place Poulain Corbian Saint Brieuc, France
6/23/05 Eurokeenes Festival Belfort, France
6/16/06 XM Radio Session Radio XM Studios
Washington, DC
7/22/06 Supertop, Splendour In The Grass festival, Byron Bay, Australia FM sbd
12/13/06 Le Zénith, Paris x2

right off the top of my head:

1984-10-24 Maxwell's, Hoboken NJ
1990-08-07 Toad's Palace, New Haven CT
1992-12-14 Brixton Academy, London England. "Splitting The Atom"
1995-07-30 Blockbuster/Sony Pavillion, Philadelphia PA
1996-04-07 Philipshalle, Dusseldorf Germany. "Intellectual Drama"
1999-02-10 Rote Fabrik, Zurich Switzerland
2000-06-23 Tabernacle, Atlanta GA

for the older ones, it's harder to choose.

I was torn between whether that '00 Tabernacle was better than Warfield Theater.
...funny how 10/24/85 is a real good one & 10/23/85 at Maxwell's is pretty so-so (I'm being kind)

for 7-30-95...if you check mustang, the listing says the lolla concert was in Philadelphia, but in the bold it says Camden, NJ. since the sony/blockbuster pavillion is in Camden & not Philly, I would assume that this show actually took place in Camden.


Oh, I'm listenin to The Ritz Raleigh '02 right now & I mis-wrote last night...it sounds pretty terrific.

Atari wins at life

I have about 300 live shows. Too hard to pick my favourites... My quick list:

11/20/83 - Trier, Germany @ Exhaus
06/02/84 - Boston, MA @ Longwood Theatre
10/24/84 - Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's
10/10/85 - Bremen, Germany @ Schlachthof
01/27/89 - Sydney, OZ @ Sydney Cove Tavern
01/28/89 - Sydney, OZ @ Sydney Cove Tavern
09/17/90 - Hamburg, Germany @ Docks
04/04/90 - Los Angeles, CA @ Whiskey-A-Go-Go
07/14/93 - Lisboa, Portugal @ Campo Pequeno
12/04/94 - NYC, NY @ Beacon Theatre
04/28/95 - Amherst, MA @ Amherst College
03/19/98 - Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa
06/13/99 - NYC, NY @ Seaport Atrium
06/10/00 - Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theater
07/11/02 - Koln, Germany @ E-Werk
08/03/02 - New Orleans, LA @ Tippitina's
06/16/03 - Louisville, KY @ Headliners
08/05/04 - Toronto, ON @ Koolhaus
10/17/04 - Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater

The only bootlegs I've heard are what I just recently traded for. Most are audience with decent sound, but I've been partial to the three soundboards I have. I couldn't even begin to have the opinion you guys have with all you list, and all you have. I want to get so many more.

Dusseldorf, Germany April 7, '96
Roskilde, Denmark June 26, '98
Stora Scenen, Sweden July 5, '05

I really like the July 4, '92 NYC show as it was a week after I'd seen them in Rhode Island. So the setlist was similar.

live at the continental club texas '86. great batch of songs

I'm quite fond of "Live in Vienna" from the Daydream Nation tour. I don't know how well it compares with other recordings from the era, but it documents the first tour I saw them on, so it's special to me.

Even more special (to me) would be recordings of London Astoria, 16 October 1988 or London Kilburn National Ballroom, 22 March 1989, if anyone has them.

i have a tape of a show they did in the effenaar, a couple of months before daydream nation came out, they played the whole album. i taped it myself, and its really really good
i also bought a live tape in bangkok once, excellent sound quality and very good show, with a great version of 'generic'

I know you meant "Genetic," but made a typographical error.
That show you taped, samoht, sounds like a uncirculated gem.

'genetic', indeed. i would like to share the effenaar show, but have no idea how to digitize it. if my dad still has his double cassette deck i could make you a tape copy if interested

There are two that stand out:

The 'Murray Street Live' one, where they play the LP through. That's awesome, because 'Murray Street' is my favourite LP of all time.

Also, the 'Dallas 2001' show that I have, because it was hearing songs on that performance that made me fully appreciate the 'NYC Ghosts and FLowers' LP, which is now in my top five SY LP's.

Walls Have Ears 1985
CBGB's 7/27/86
Chapel Hill, NC 1987 (after i corrected the speed/pitch)

you may know that I have I can't remember anymore how many SY shows. Two of them stand out for me:

3/18/96 Club Noorderligt Tilburg, NL
5/28/98 Veterans Wadsworth Theater Los Angeles

Why? Because I was there :-) Well, almost. I was in Tilburg. And I was in LA but I saw them the day before and the day after. So I'm sincerely hoping these dates will show up eventually also.

Oh btw, It's Noorderligt, not ...licht

Hey samoht, I'm sure someone would be willing to digitize it for you. I would if I could but I've never done it either. I could ask around if you want (rappard might be able to for instance).
edit: is it this show you're talking about?
09/29/88 Eindhoven, NL Effenaar

oh my, that would be awesome!!

ok i found the tape, still sounds amazing! it is indeed on that date, september 29th '88, but what lee ranaldo talks about happened in the days before or after that, when lee hung around in the effenaar during a bongwater show. i vaguely recall that, i was there also.
i can make a cassette copy, my dad still has his double tape deck.

setlist:
the wonder
hyperstation
teenage riot
cross the breeze
rain king
kissability
hey joni
eric's trip

candle
the sprawl
eleminator jr
silver rocket
i wanna be yr dog (w. guest appearance Roland S. Howard)

06-20-1998

That is probably my favorite.

follow up

5-11-86